The premier issue of Zebrafish, an innovative, peer-reviewed journal, was published today by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. (www.liebertpub.com). Available both in print and online, Zebrafish is the only journal to provide the latest advances in the use of zebrafish and other aquarium models for biomedical and genomics research. The issue is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/zeb.

Due to the many favorable characteristics of the zebrafish, including prolific reproduction, external development, and transparent embryos, this species has become a promising new model for the genetic analysis of embryo development and human disease. These advantages make the zebrafish a vertebrate model that, while genetically more distant from humans, has comparable organs and tissues that serve to complement, and in some cases, provide an alternative to lab mice.

"The zebrafish has become a popular model for studies of embryo development, toxicology, drug screening, and human disease," says Editor-in-Chief, Paul Collodi, Ph.D., Professor of Animal Sciences, Purdue University. "As the sequence of the zebrafish genome is completed and new genetic tools come online, this organism will also become a key model system for research in the fields of functional genomics and biotechnology."

The Zebrafish journal fills a gap in the literature by publishing significant advances made in a variety of disciplines using aquarium fish models including medaka, Fugu, and Xiphophorus. Each issue of the Journal explores the use of the zebrafish and other aquarium models for comparative studies of gene structure, function and evolution; the cellular and molecular mechanisms of cell growth, differentiation, and gene expression; new strategies to study gene function and embryonic mutations; the use of aquatic models for carcinogenesis, toxicology, infections and immune response; human neurological disorders, and aging; and drug discovery.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including DNA and Cell Biology, ASSAY and Drug Development Technologies and OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals and books is available at www.liebertpub.com.

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